Assassin's Creed (PS3) Review

Quick Info:

Plot Summary:

Assassin’s Creed is about a man named Desmond Miles who is kidnapped by the mysterious Abstergo Industries and put into a machine called the Animus which lets him relive the life of his ancestor through his DNA.

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Gameplay:

The game itself is pretty fun; it does get repetitive at times. You have to ride to a city, find viewpoints to get a better view of the city which will update your map, perform investigations to learn about your target, and then assassinate them. There are also optional missions like killing Templars and rescuing citizens who will become vigilantes and help you when you get into fights with guards.

It does get annoying when Altair won't quite run up the direction you want him to, and sometimes he won't jump off the roof quite the way you want him to.

Combat is also somewhat repetative, but you can cheese most fights except against Templars by using the block button (for PS3 the Square button). The knife aiming isn't perfect and sometimes you won't hit your target. THe horse riding is also a little clunky as well.

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Graphics:

The graphics look pretty nice and still hold up, but there are some pop in textures. Overall, the presentation is good and the cities are very large and interesting to explore. It’s very fun to go rooftopping all over the cities and look around.

The viewpoint syncronization sequences are really pretty and they've become a staple of the franchise, even if Assassin's Creed has sequelitus-ed itself to the point of becoming "meh", I still enjoy playing the game and it does look pretty good, even if the graphics look miuch better now in the sequels than the first game did in 2007.

Story thoughts (Spoiler Free):

The story itself is pretty good, although it’s kind of hard to care about Desmond Miles because he barely has any character development whatsoever. Lucy is okay, but everybody in the modern world is kind of boring compared to the characters in the Third Crusade.

It's a problem when you don't care about many of the characters. I like it when we see Altair's story, everything else feels like padding.

I also find it interesting that the story takes potshots at Christianity, saying that it never happened, and that it was all a lie, but won't ever say anything offensive about Islam, even though the setting is during the Third Crusade.

And it makes siure to say that the development is made up of various people of different faths and religons, but that just feels lie a religious flame shield so they can avoid the criticism that they're only criticizing one religion and not another.

Assassin's Creed Intro Video:

The Flawed, Overalert A.I. is Annoying:

The game isn’t perfect though. The A.I. can be a little annoying, guards will be suspicious if you just start to run, especially later in the game, if you’re not walking and blending they’ll notice you no matter what you do and you find yourself either running away to hide or fighting them a lot, and that can get annoying.

Voice Acting:

The voice cast is pretty good. Nolan North is good as Desmond Miles; he tends to be in a lot of games I’ve been reviewing lately. Kristen Bell is also very good as Lucy Stillman, she’s one of the characters that’s actually likable, unlike everyone else. Phil Proctor is also good as Warren Vidic and he does a good job of making his character come off as a jerk.

For the characters in the Third Crusade, Phil Shahbaz is the best voice actor in this game as Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, who gets the most character development and seems to be into his character. Peter Reneday is excellent as Al Mualim, and he had an interesting character.

Audience Poll:

Will You Buy Assassin's Creed

Parental Advisory:

This game is rated M for Mature which is ages 17 and up. It has strong profanity, including the F-word. It also has graphic blood and violence, but you can turn the blood off in the options menu, but not the profanity. This is a game for adults so it’s up to you as a parent if you want your younger teens to play this game.

Quick Grade:

What Works:

What Doesn't Work

Good Story in the Historical Period

Don't Feel attached to modern characters

Fun gamplay

"Real world" segments feel like padding

Nice environments

A.I. can be over alert and annoying

Pretty open world

One sided view on religion, won't address the other aspects of religion in game

Overall Grade: A-:

Assassin’s Creed is a pretty good game, I do feel I got my money’s worth out of it, but it’s not necessarily a must buy for people. It’s interesting historical fiction, but if you’re a Christian you might be offended by it, if you’re Muslim, you might be offended by it too, but it just depends on what you’d find offensive about it.

I recommend it to people who want an interesting historical adventure. It is someone repetitive and the A.I. is not perfect, but it’s pretty fun, check it out if it seems interesting to you.